by Lauren Kate
Page 16
“Oh,” Daniel said. “The Scale can be fearsome. They relish causing pain, and they may cause our friends some temporary discomfort. But they won’t hurt them in any permanent way. They don’t kill. That’s not their style. ”
“What is their style, then?” Luce crossed her legs under her on the hard damp surface of the roof. “You still haven’t told me who they are or what we’re up against. ”
“The Scale came into being after the Fall. They’re a small group of . . . lesser angels. They were the first to be asked in the Roll Call which side they would stand by, and they chose the Throne. ”
“There was a roll call?” Luce asked, not sure she’d heard correctly. It sounded more like homeroom than Heaven.
“After the schism in Heaven, all of us were made to choose sides. So, starting with the angels with the small-est dominions, each of us was to be called upon to make an oath of fealty to the Throne. ” He stared at the mist, and it was as though he could see it all again. “It took ages to call out the angels’ names, starting at the lowest ranked and working up. It probably took as long to say our names as it did for Rome to rise and fall. But they didn’t make it all the way through the Roll Call before—” Daniel took a ragged breath.
“Before what?”
“Before something happened to make the Throne lose faith in its host of angels . . . ” By now Luce realized that when Daniel’s voice trailed off like that, it wasn’t because he didn’t trust her or because she wouldn’t understand, but because despite all the things she’d seen and learned, it still might be too soon for her to know the truth. So she didn’t ask—though she was desperate to—what had made the Throne abandon the Roll Call when its highest angels had not yet chosen sides. She let Daniel speak again when he was ready.
“Heaven cast out everyone who had not sided with it. Remember how I told you a few angels never got to choose? They were among the last in the Roll Call, the highest. After the Fall, Heaven was bereft of most of its Archangels. ” He closed his eyes. “The Scale, who had lucked into seeming loyal, stepped into the breach. ”
“So because the Scale swore fealty to Heaven first—” Luce said.
“They felt they had a superior amount of honor,” Daniel said, finishing her thought. “Since then, they have self-righteously claimed to serve Heaven by acting as celestial parole officers. But the position is self-invented, not ordained. With the Archangels gone after the Fall, the Scale took advantage of a vacuum of power. They carved out a role for themselves, and they convinced the Throne of their importance. ”
“They lobbied God?”
“More or less. They pledged to restore the fallen to Heaven, to gather back those angels who had strayed, to return them to the fold. They spent a handful of millennia urging us to recommit ourselves to the ‘right’ side, but somewhere along the way, they gave up trying to change our points of view. Now they mostly just try to prevent us from accomplishing anything. ” His steely gaze looked enraged and it made Luce wonder what could be so bad in Heaven that it kept Daniel in self-exile. Wasn’t the peace of Heaven prefer-able to where he was now, with everyone waiting for him to choose?
Daniel laughed bitterly. “But the angels worth their wings who have returned to Heaven don’t need the Scale to get there. Ask Gabbe, ask Arriane. The Scale is a joke.
Still, they’ve had one or two successes. ”
“But not you?” she asked. “You haven’t chosen one side or the other. And so they’re after you, aren’t they?” A crowded red tram wound around the paved circle below, then forked up a narrow street.
“They’ve been after me for years,” Daniel said, “planting lies, manufacturing scandals. ”
“And yet you haven’t declared for the Throne. Why haven’t you?”
“I’ve told you. It’s not as simple as that,” he said.
“But you’re clearly not going to side with Lucifer. ”
“Right, but . . . I can’t explain thousands of years’
worth of argument in the space of a few minutes. It is complicated by factors beyond my control. ” He looked away again, out over the city, then down at his hands.
“And it’s an insult to be asked to choose, an insult for your creator to demand that you reduce the vastness of your love to the tiny, petty confines of a gesture during a Roll Call. ” He sighed. “I don’t know. Maybe I’m too sincere. ”
“No—” Luce started.
“Anyway, the Scale. They’re Heavenly bureaucrats. I think of them as high school principals. Pushing papers and punishing minor transgressions of rules no one cares about or believes in, all in the name of ‘morality. ’” Again Luce stared out at the city, which was drawing a dark coat around its shoulders. She thought of the sour-breathed vice-principal at Dover, whose name she couldn’t remember, who never had any interest in her side of any story, who had signed her expulsion papers after the fire that killed Trevor. “I’ve been burned by people like that. ”
“We all have. They’re sticklers for frivolous rules of their own invention, which they deem righteous. None of us like them, but unfortunately the Throne has given them the power to monitor us, to detain us without cause, to convict us of crimes by a jury of their choosing. ”
Luce shuddered again, this time not because of the cold. “And you think they have Arriane and Roland and Annabelle? Why? Why hold them?”
Daniel sighed. “I know they have Arriane and Roland and Annabelle. Their hatred blinds them to the fact that delaying us helps Lucifer. ” He swallowed hard. “What I fear most is that they also have the relic. ” In the distance, four pairs of tattered wings material-ized in the fog. Outcasts. As they neared the palace roof, Luce and Daniel rose to greet them.
The Outcasts landed next to Luce, their wings crackling like paper umbrellas as they drew them to their sides. Their faces betrayed no emotion; nothing in their demeanor suggested that their trip had been suc-cessful.
“Well?” Daniel asked.
“The Scale has taken control of a place down the river,” Vincent announced, pointing in the direction of the Ferris wheel. “The neglected wing of a museum. It is under renovation, covered in scaffolding, so they stake it out unnoticed. It is not equipped with alarms. ”
“You’re certain they’re Scale?” Daniel asked quickly.
One of the Outcasts nodded. “We perceived their brands, their gold insignias—the star with seven points for the seven holy virtues painted on their necks. ”
“What about Roland and Arriane and Annabelle?” Luce asked.
“They are with the Scale. Their wings are bound,” Vincent said.
Luce turned away, biting down on her lower lip.
How awful it must be for an angel to have her wings restrained. She couldn’t bear to think of Arriane without the freedom to flutter her iridescent wings. She couldn’t imagine any substance strong enough to contain the power of Roland’s marbled wings.
“Well, if we know where they are, let’s go rescue them already,” she said.
“And the relic?” Daniel said lowly to Vincent.
Luce gaped at him. “Daniel, our friends are in danger. ”
“Do they have it?” Daniel pressed. He glanced at Luce, put his hand around her waist. “Everything is in danger. We will save Arriane and the others, but we have to find that relic, too. ”
“We do not know about the relic. ” Vincent shook his head. “The warehouse is heavily guarded, Daniel Grigori. They await your arrival. ”
Daniel faced the city, his violet eyes casting along the river as if seeking out the warehouse. His wings pulsed.
“They won’t be waiting long. ”
“No!” Luce pleaded. “You’ll be walking into a trap.
What if they take you hostage, the way they’ve taken the others?”
“The others must have crossed them in some way. As long as I follow their protocol, appeal to their vanity, the Scale will not imprison me,” he said. “I’l
l go alone. ” He glanced at the Outcasts and added, “Unarmed. ”
“But the Outcasts are charged with guarding you,” Vincent said in his even, monotone voice. “We will follow at a distance and—”
“No. ” Daniel lifted a hand to stop Vincent. “You will take the warehouse roof. Did you sense Scale there?” Vincent nodded. “A few. The majority are near the main entrance. ”
“Good. ” Daniel nodded. “I’ll use their own procedure against them. Once I reach the front doors, the Scale will waste time identifying me, checking me for contraband, anything they can make appear illegal.
While I distract them near the entrance, the Outcasts will force your way through the warehouse roof and free Roland, Arriane, and Annabelle. And if you face a member of the Scale up there—”
In unison, the Outcasts held open their trench coats to reveal sheaths of dull silver starshots and compact matching bows.
“You cannot kill them,” Daniel warned.
“Please, Daniel Grigori,” Vincent pleaded. “We are all better off without them. ”
“They are called Scale not only because of their small-minded obsession with rules. They also provide an essential counterbalance to Lucifer’s forces. You are quick enough to elude their cloaks. We only need to delay them, and for that a threat will suffice. ”
“But they only seek to delay you, ” Vincent countered. “All of this delaying will lead to oblivion. ” Luce was about to ask where this plan left her when Daniel drew her into his arms. “I need you to stay here and guard the relic. ” They looked at the halo, resting against the base of the warrior statue. It was beaded with rain. “Please don’t argue. We can’t let the Scale near the relic. You and it will be safest here. Olianna will stay to protect you. ”
Luce glanced at the Outcast girl, who stared back emptily, her eyes a depthless gray. “Okay, I’ll stay here. ”
“Let us hope the second relic is still at large,” he said, arching back his wings. “Once the others have been freed, we can make a plan to find it together. ” Luce clenched her fists, closed her eyes, and kissed Daniel, holding him tight for one last moment.
He was gone a second later, his regal wings growing smaller as he soared into the night, the three Outcasts flying alongside him. Soon they all seemed little more than flecks of dust in the clouds.
Olianna hadn’t moved. She stood like a trench-coated version of any of the other statues on the roof. She faced Luce with her hands clasped together over her chest, the blond hair along her forehead pulled back so tight into its ponytail it looked like it would snap. When she reached inside her trench coat, a harsh scent of sawdust wafted out. When she pulled out and nocked a silver starshot, Luce scrambled a few steps back.
“Do not be afraid, Lucinda Price,” Olianna said. “I only want to be prepared to defend you in case an enemy approaches. ”